Heroes of Might and Magic

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Strategy Guide for Heroes of Might & MagicVersion 0.2 03/96Brought to youby Yujun Qinhttp://www.egr.uh.edu/[email protected]

Do whatever you want with this document. You can even print it out and burn it.I give you theright to do so. But if you do distribute this document, please do not alter it and distribute in itsentirety.

DISCLAIMERAll parts of this game are designed by New World Computing, Inc. Some sc

reen shotsare used in this homepage and none of them should be used for any commercial purpose againstthe interest of New World Computing, Inc.

A CRY FOR HELPThis guide is primarily aimed the new players of this game. FOR THOSE EX

PERTPLAYERS, please oh pleeeeaaaaasssee mail me your strategies of playing. I can not do thisalone. If you love this game as much as I do, you would love to help others play better wouldntyou? If we can pool all the resources together then we can make this guide really, I meanREALLY valuable to others and more players can benefit from it. You compose a new sectionfor this guide and your name will be in the Credit section as the co-author of t

his guide. If youcan only offer one little tip, I will still thank you by putting your name in the special thankssection. I repeat, I can NOT do this alone, I need help. So lets get it going!!

Some shit you can skipSince I put basic concepts of the game and troop types in other sections

, this documentwill concentrate on strategies. However, strategy is considered more like art than science. Youneed to feel it. I can call myself an expert player of the game but certainly not a strategist, not

yet. What I am offering in this guide is my own experience and some advice. I still called itStrategy Guide because thats what they are all called and Advice Guide sounds lameanyway.

CreditsWell only little old me fit here, for now.

Special thanksThe Zhou Brothers

[email protected] Tang

[email protected] (Thanks for the offer to rewrite the whole thing,

but no thanks, I will stick to my bad grammer :P)Steve Mclnerney [email protected]


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Paul Harden [email protected] Young [email protected]

The first thing you need to learnI am not going to reproduce the manual here. You should read every page

of it beforeyou start the game. Even the letters written by Ironfist have some tips on strategy. What I amshowing you here are what I think is important and my own experience. One thing youabsolutely need to know is how to use your right mouse click. The right click is like help inmost cases. When you click on something you dont understand, you will see a small windowpop up and give you some explanation. Actually you can find most information you need byright clicking. Like the cost for building everything, troops' status and so on.

You can also rightclick on enemy heroes to find out what kind of troops and how many of them are led by thishero. Right click on enemy castles/towns shows you the defenders.

Basic ConceptsThis is a fantasy strategy game, turn based. I can put the whole legend

of the game herebut, thats pretty much the whole manual is about, so read it. Of course, you canplay the gamewithout reading the story. What you really need to know is this:

You have one hero with one or two troop(s), normally two, and a castle with minimal

improvements at the beginning of each scenario. You start your building/conquest there. Youhave several tasks to survive and ultimately win the scenario.

Castle -- Castle is the place you build all your improvements and hire your heroes from. Itsyour home, defend it. It also produces 1000 gold per turn, BTW one turn is one day. Differentcastle type also decides what kind of troops you can produce. Capture as many enemy castlesas you can, this is normally what you need to do to win in most scenario.

Towns -- Towns arethe only places in game that can be build into castles. This makes the towns almost as useful ascastles. Towns generally are neutral at the beginning with some kind of defenses. Alwaysconquer the neutral town upon discovery as you can manage. Dont start any suicidaloperation, it will, generally, do you no good. A town is fairly easy to conquercompared to acastle They dont have a wall to protect itself. When you attack, it is the same as fighting onplains. I recommend you to change towns into castles as soon as possible.

Mines -- You need to capture mines or you will soon draw your resource reserve empty. Youwill need all the resources to build city improvements, produce troops and hire


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heroes. Tocapture a mine and claim it yours, just have a hero walk into it. You will see a little flag of yourcolor on top of it after capturing. Capture as many as you can. Always reclaimthe mine if it iscaptured by other lords heroes. Dont leave those mines without checking back later!!

Hero -- To capture mines, you need heroes. To fight and conquer others you needheroes. Theconcept of hero is very useful in this game. A hero is needed to lead your troops. Without ahero, your troops are not going anywhere but defending your castle. Hero is theleader and soulof your troops . A hero can cast spells when you have researched/found spells,and with a spellbook in the heros inventory. A hero can hold up to 14 of whatever artifacts he/she may findand use them. Different types of heroes have different modifiers and abilities,

I will discuss theselater.

City Improvements -- You need to build city improvements. Most of the improvementsproduces troops, the detailed list will be in the troops section. Every castle has some commonimprovements:

Magic guild: 4 levels totally. Each level you add, you get additional spells. With magic guild,you can also, for 500 gold, buy spell books for non-spell casting heroes like knights and

barbarians.

Thieves guild: Gives you information on your standings among other players in differentcategories. The more guilds you own, the more info you get. But I dont really find it that usefulto build one in every castle.

Well: This one is useful. It increase the productions of your troops in that castle by 2 per week.It may not be much for peasants or sprites and such, but when you need dragons or phoenix, 2units takes two weeks to produce.

Tavern: Increase the morale of your defending troops.

Shipyard: Produces ships, if you are on the sea shore; you can't build a shipyard if you are noton the sea shore. Also, only one ship can dock at a shipyard at any given time.You have tomove the boat before you can produce another one.

Troops -- You need to, of course, produce troops, to fight other lords. The status and cost ofdifferent troops are discussed in details in troops section.

Artifacts -- You will want to find and grab those artifacts available in each scenario. You dont


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HAVE TO but it will help, well mostly. There are artifacts that will hurt you rather than help you.And once you find the artifacts, you cant destroy it nor drop it. You can't trade it either. ItHAS to be carried on the original hero who found it. Note, only the bad artifacts can't betransferred. You can trade between your own heroes good artifacts and troops. M

y advice isthis. Grab everything that you can get your hands on. If you do find a bad artifact, let this herocarry it (you don't really have a choice there.) then, if you want, you can give him minimaltroops like one of the weakest and let him fight other lords heroes, after he is defeated, thewinning party will have to pick up the artifact up and now its their problem. Beware though,you might forget who picked up your bad luck later and fight that same hero again only to findout you got your bad luck back. So a more safe way is to keep him to dig up all

the artifacts,then redistribute them. If you do choose to do this, remember don't keep him inthe castles thatare likely to be attacked, because when attacked the hero in the castle will assume the role oftroop leader and the artifacts he carries will effect all the troops. Or better yet, you can leavethat hero in some place where nobody will ever be. Of course you can just forget about the badone just give all good ones to this hero to counter balance it and give him as many troops aspossible and he is still a good fighter. You can get to the point where you have so many troops

under the command of one hero that you don't have to worry about spells, luck or anything else.you can kill any enemy troops within one turn. Then who cares what the hero is carrying.Among the artifacts, there is a biggie in every scenario, that is buried somewhere. You need tosolve a puzzle to see where its buried. You solve the puzzle by find pieces of the treasure mapfrom different obelisks. After you fit all the pieces together (dont worry computer does that foryou.), you can see the red mark on the map indicating the location of the artifact. One trick tothis is to start digging before you have all the pieces. As long as you can make a good guesswhere it is, start digging. You will be happy with that artifact, its much better than otherartifacts. While normal artifacts may give your hero +2 attack skill, or +2 defense skill, or +2spell skills, the one that you dig up will add 12 to a skill. Artifacts are generally defended bysome neutral troops on the way. After you reach for the artifacts, three things may happen. Youmay get it for free (the best), or you can buy it for 2000 gold, the worst is you may find a packof rogues defending it. You never know which situation will happen. Its pure luc

k. So bealways prepared for a battle.


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Misc. -- You may also find other strange looking things. Always remember to right click if youare not sure. Most things you walk into wont hurt you. Even if they will, you will be asked ifyou want to go in that place or not. This is a always a good indicator and you should expect abattle ahead. I will give some examples below but you can find these out easily.

Examples of good ones -- The fountain and ring bless your troops and make them lucky. Thestatue give you good morale. Capturing a lighthouse increases your troops' moveon sea.Windmill gives you a small amount of resource every week, but you have to walk to it everyweek to receive it. Some dwellings for peasants and goblins or archers are out there. Alsodwellings for nomads rogues and genies. (yes, the genies in the lamp)

Examples of bad ones -- The ship wreck, grave yard and cave have monsters and ghosts inside,but you can always find something useful in return if you win the battle. However, if you orsomeone has already searched those places and killed all the monsters, and you search again,you will find nothing and your troops morale becomes low

??? -- The strangest of them all is the dragon city. You can consider that a good place to visit ifyou have a large army. After you attack the city and kill all the dragons in there, the rest of thedragon will offer you 1000 gold per day and defend the city for you. And you ask

how comethere are dragons left if your army killed them all? Maybe dragons are magical and can rise fromtheir ashes. Wait that's phoenix. OK! Baby dragons from the city's day care center! Satisfied? Ididn't design the game!! Anyway, it's like a gold mine with defenders; and in easy settings, otherlords never attack the city. In the harder setting, they might when they find it.

HAD ENOUGH? I JUST GOT WARMED UP!!

Strategy -- Yeah finally :)OK I will do it this way. I will follow the process of playing.

Standard game? Campaign game?The first you need to do is select Standard game or Campaign game from t

he Mainmenu. Multi-player game is not a issue of strategy, it depends on whether you have a buddy ornot. Now lets go back to which type of game to play. I will list the advantages anddisadvantages of both game types.

Standard Game Advantages: You get to choose the number of computer players (1-3) and their

dumbness.You get to choose your color freely (yeah like thats important). You can set thedifficulty of the


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whole game. You can choose the scenario, and after playing the same scenario for a while youcan remember the whole map. In some scenario you start with more than one castle. That's notalways an advantage though. Since you can't see anything on map between these castles and ifyou have more than one castle, guess how strong those computer AIs are!

Disadvantages: You cant really choose which type of troops to start with. One, out of fourtypes of troops, is assigned to you randomly. Or it's rather a castle type thatis assigned to you.Doesn't matter really, all the same thing.

Notes -- In the standard game selection window, there is an option called King of the Hill if you are a newbie, DO NOT CHECK THIS OPTION. This option makes all your enemy stop fighting each other and beat you up first. I think it is an option for exp

ert players who wantan adventure and challenge. Another thing, although you dont get the briefing window like thecampaign game, you can still read something explaining the scenario when you click on thescenario you want to choose.

Campaign game Advantages: You can choose which type of troops to start your campaign with. You get abriefing window before every scenario to learn what you are supposed to do in that scenario.Every mission is different, not simply seek domination of the land; this make it

much moreinteresting. And it does follow a story line. As simple as the story is, it's still a story. To seewhich type of troops to choose for campaign game, see 'troops' section. You getto choose which lordyou want to choose to play as. Then you get asigned a castle that should be ledby this lord.

Disadvantages: You cant really set the difficulty level. You will always face what thecomputer throw at you. You don't have any control over it, but to accept everything. I alwaysthink in campaign game you are always put in a less favored situation. Others lords may bemore advanced than you, and you always start with one castle.

Note -- In campaign games, always pay close attention to the mission assigned to you. Ifyou dont finish the mission successfully, you cant finish the scenario. You mayconquer all thewarlords, you still cant finish it. Also beware of the other warlords who may finish the missionbefore you, then you are in BIG trouble, namely, you lose. I found that out thehard way. Allthe campaign scenarios stay the same at all time like standard games. Only the d

istribution ofartifacts changes every time, not the locations but the items themselves change. This applies to


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both type of games.

After you have picked the type of game, a scenario starts. Like all other strategy games, youcan only see a small block of the whole map, where your castle and hero stands.You havelimited resource at the beginning. You have a level-one hero already hired leadi

ng minimaltroops. In one word, YOU SUCK. OOps, that was two words. OK so I can't count, no surprise there, I am in college!! The first thing you need to do is click/ double click on yourhero AND your castle to check their status. Lets look at these.

Heros screen: You left click on your selected hero to see info. (left click to select too)

Whos my hero?The title bar thats above all the pix is the name and class of your hero.

Like Arus theknight. Also, the first pix of the first row is the portrait of your hero(most are ugly, generally nofoxy lady either :)

How experienced is my hero?The first row of pix give you that information. There is an icon for att

ack skill. Thenumber showing is how much attack skills this hero can add to all the troops heleads. The iconand number for defense skill works the same way. Only it adds to defense. The spell skillnumber tells you how effective your spells are. For some spells like protection

and bless orblind; they last as many rounds as your spell skill. For example, spell skill =1 gives a cheesyone round protection per spell cast. The knowledge number tells you how many spells of thesame kind you can keep on your spell book. You can keep all the spell you can learn from amagic guild but how many each depends on your knowledge, make sense? The last picture hasthree row inside. First the eagle like icon stand for morale. Click on the eagle for your moraleinfo. The second row inside the picture is a rainbow like icon, which stands for luck. Samething, click on icon to see your luck info. The third is a star with the word exp on it. Thenumber besides it is your heros current experience points. When you click on theicon you seehow much more is needed for next level. When a hero gains a level, he/she gainsone point inone of the four skills. There is no telling which one though. Spell casters have more chance ofgaining spell skill and knowledge, knights and barbarians have more chance of gaining attackand defense skills. But again you cant really tell, its random. A hero gain experience mainly by

fighting. The more powerful and greater in number of enemy you kill, the more experience youget. A hero can also visit gazebo to gain experience but only once per gazebo pe


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r hero. Youcan also convert gold to experience when you find treasure chests.

How strong is my hero?The strength of your hero depends on the troops he/she leads. The hero d

oesnt actuallyfight during a combat. What he does it making decisions and cast spells. So its t

he troops whowill fight. The second row of pictures of the window tell you which kind and how many troopsthe hero is leading. A hero can lead a maximum of 5 types of troops. But you can stack all thetroops of same type together. And there is virtually no limit to how many you can stacktogether. I have reached more than 200 troops myself, no problem. BTW 200 of any troopsshould be pretty powerful, except peasants, I have killed 160 peasants with oneshoot :) Somecommon sense, stack as many as you can afford. An army can never be too strong.

I willdiscuss the detail of these later.

Does my hero carry any goodies?It depends on you. The last two rows of icons in the window are normally

unfilled atfirst. This is the inventory of you hero. He/she carries the spell book and anyartifacts the heromay find. Spell casters normally carry a spell book with them when you hire them. For otherswho dont have a spell book at first, you can click on the magic guild that you have build and for500 gold you can buy one.(to do this, the hero has to be in the castle that has

the magic guild.)The spell book is considered the only artifacts that cant be transferred betweenheroes.Including the spell book, a hero can carry a maximum of 14 artifacts. Each normally affect oneskill/luck/morale of the hero, hence the troops the hero is leading.

Now you must have noticed there are different hero types here.There are four types in this game. The following is the attributes oflevel 1 heroes. Normally that's how they are when you hire them. Theyimprove themselves by gaining levels.

KnightAttack -- 1Defense -- 2Spell Power -- 1Knowledge -- 1Come with spellbook -- NoSpecialty -- +1 morale

BarbarianAttack -- 2Defense -- 1Spell Power -- 1Knowledge -- 1

Come with spellbook -- NoSpecialty -- No movement penalies for moving over rough terrain.


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SorceressAttack -- 0Defense -- 0Spell Power -- 2Knowledge -- 3Come with a spellbook -- YesSpecialty -- Move on water with double speed.

WarlockAttack -- 0Defense -- 0Spell Power -- 3Knowledge -- 2Specailty -- Has a larger visibility radius in Adventure window.

Now this is it for heroes screen.

The Adventure windowYou see the surrounding of your heroes, your castles and the places your

heroes havebeen to. You can scroll this window around. For an overview of all areas, use the world map atthe upper right corner. You use your adventure window to move your heroes around to fightothers and explore the unknown territories. There really isn't much strategy totalk about in thispart. All you need to know is in the manual. :) Yeah right, what manual?! The main objective inthe adventure window is to move you heroes on to as many mines and obelisks as possible,they can ONLY help you. Every turn, before you do anything, right click on allcastles, yours

and especially enemy's. You look around your castles for potential dangers, like some sneakyenemy heroes. If you do see one right click to find out its troop strength. If you think yourdefenders of the castle are stronger than the enemy troops, then just leave himalone there. Butbeware, if you don't have a hero in your castle you still may lose even if yourtroops arestronger. Because heroes have several advantages. First, heroes have spells. Ifyou don't haveany hero to counter cast spells, chances are half of your troops can't even attack before they gotall killed. Second, heroes have artifacts to help them, to increase attack power, defense skill andluck and morale. I won't go too much into it right now, I will save the goodiesfor later, thecombat. Last but not the least, heroes adds bonus skills to all the troop he/she is leading. Thebonus depends on the level of the heroes, and hero's class. You can't tell any of the abovewithout 'identify hero' spell. So you can't just look at the enemy troops and say 'They are weak!'as long as the power is close to yours especially if the enemy has one of the four most powerfultroops (Paladin, Cyclops, dragon, phoenix-- look into troops section to see why

they arepowerful) take extreme caution. Since your castle is your most precious property, defend it


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carefully. If you do think you will lose the fight and you don't have any hero of yours closeenough to save you, you don't have to loose all your troops in your castle. If you have lots ofmoney and all your dwellings in that castle can still give you more troops, then get everyone ofthem, even if all of your troops added together can't save the castle. Why, you

ask? So afteryour enemy take over the castle, he can't recruit any more troops and you know exactly howmany troops he has, and probably within a week, you can get an army strong enough to get thecastle back and preferably kill that enemy hero(well heroes never die, but if you defeat them inthe combat they disappear). Now that you have emptied your castle, it's time toflee. Yes flee. Ifyou are positively sure that you can't win that battle, you flee to save your troops won't you?You go hire a hero and let that hero lead all the troops you got and flee out of

the castle. If youhave more than 5 types of troops, leave the weakest in castle and, no choice, you have to letthem die. Normally, computer's first objective is to capture your castle. So its hero will totallyignore the hero fled out of the castle and still go ahead and attack the castle. The computer alsouse this strategy when it sees that your troops is going to attack its castle and it can't defend it.So if this happen to you, do what I do, go attack the fleeing hero first and kill all the troops, thecastle is empty for the week anyway, you have plenty of time to capture it later. There is an

interesting effect caused by this strategy used by computer. When one computer player attackanother computer player, the defender flee ask I describe above, so the attacker take the castlethen it will leave without put any troops for defense. So the fleeing hero go back and take thecastle back and also leave without defense, since none of them can get more troops from thecastle. So those two heroes will keep capturing and leaving the castle for ever, without attackingeach other. Now, you have checked all your castles and make sure they are safe.It's time tocheck enemy's castles. When you right click on enemy castles you will see the defenders. If it'sweak then you find a good opportunity to get yourself a brand new castle. Rightclick on enemyheroes to find out their strength. After knowing what you have and what your enemies have,you can start planning, and move your heroes around accordingly. Also, recruit as many troopsas you can afford. After all, get a large army is the ultimate goal you have toachieve for thisgame. Be careful where you are stepping though, there are scattered creatures all around themap. They don't belong to any lord, but they will defend their properties if you

invade theirprivacy. Each such creature has the control over the adjacent squares. You can walk pass them


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in those adjacent squares without pissing them off, but if you stop in those squares, you'd betterready to kill them all, for if you don't they will kill you. If you stop right on those creatures,which means you are attacking them intentionally, two things might happen. Do you want hearthe good one first or the bad one? OK, bad one first. You have to fight until on

e dies. Now thegood news, the creature may offer to join you, and you will gladly accept that offer, I hope? Thesurrender generally happens when your army is way to powerful for them to handle. But, it's allrandom. I forgot what happens if they offer to surrender and you don't have anyspace left inyour army to hold them. Or maybe they don't surround under that condition? Anyway this don'thappen much. Normally, those creatures are guarding something. Maybe a mine, anartifact, aroad to other parts of the map. Whatever it is, if you want to go through, you m

ust try your luck.However, you don't always have to fight them. If you don't desperately need that mine orwhatever, you can wait until other heroes kill the creature, and you can capture the mine later.Of course if it's an artifact then you can't get it. Sometimes, when the creatures are guarding anroad, they are actually acting as a defense line for you to keep other lords' heroes away, at leastfor a while. So my advise is this: do not fight them unless it is necessary, they usually fight insteadof surrender so don't think you can always get free troops.

Another thing you can do, in advanture window is walk to another friendl

y hero, then atrade window come up and you can trade troops and/or artifacts between two heroes. This is away to deliver troops and/or artifacts to a hero who, for some reason, can't get back to a castle.You trade troops and artifacts by click the ones to be traded then the according arrow sign. Orif you want to exchange things, just click once on one then click once on the other. Note, spellsbooks and cursed (bad) artifacts can't be transferred. You have to leave at least one group oftroops for a hero.

You move your heroes around, sooner or later, you will encounter combat. One coolthing about this game is that you can actually see and control what's going on in combat notrandom result like other games.

When you engage in a combat, you enter the

Combat WindowAttacking troops will always be on the left side, defenders on the right

. The troops ofone hero arrange in a column from top to bottom of the window. The troop that is the first in 5troops appear at the top. You can see the order of appearance by double click th

e icon of thehero who is leading those troops at the left side, outside the adventure window. The small tent


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behind the line of your troops is where the hero is hiding during the combat. You can move themouse point over the tent and it will change to a helmet. Then click and you will see all theoptions a hero can do. Nothing much, cast spells, retreat, surrender, cancel.

Cast spells -- If your hero has any spells on the spellbook, it's time to use those

COMBAT SPELLS. I will tell you the effect of different spells in 'spells' section. Your hero cancast spell once every combat turn. So make sure you are not helping the enemy before you casta spell. (Yes, you can actually help your enemy by cast a spell in battle.)

Retreat -- Your hero flee, lose all troops but your hero is back to thepool for rehiringright afterwards. The heroes keep the experience points. artifacts. BEWARE, thehero afterfleeing can be hired by any lord and disappears the next week. So if you want to rehire thathero do it quickly.

Surrender -- it doesn't sound good for a hero but it has its advantagestoo. When yousurrender, generally the other hero will accept (yes only another hero can accept surrender soyou can't surrender to enemies without a hero leader.) After the hero accepts your surrender,he/she will ask for ransom before setting you free. The amount depends on the number and kindof troops. What you are actually doing is paying money to buy back your loser troops. If youcan't pay or the hero declines your request, then you must continue the fight. After paying, yourhero is back to the pool with experience, artifacts, all the troops and ready fo

r ALL the lords tohire. Since you paid the money for his/her freedom, grab that guy OK? Don't be a sucker andlet some other lord get your hero and troops.

Cancel -- You click here when you say 'OOPS, I click on the wrong icon.'

Attacking party move first. exceptions see 'troops' section. The troops attack in order of speed.The fastest troop attack first. Most fast troops, and all flying units can moveto enemy andattack in one turn, most slow units can't. So don't get part of your units to deep into combatwhile your others units are still trying to catch up. But again sometimes you want to do that. Alldepends on your strategy. Shooters are the most precious units you can get incombat soALWAYS PROTECT THEM. But remember, your shooters have limited ammo so if you fighta long battle, they will run out of the arrows or whatever. After that, shooters units suck. Thereis another thing you should know in combat called retaliate. Don't think your enemy will juststand there dumb-founded. They will return the favor to the first one or two attacks they

receive, generally, see 'troops' section for exceptions. The same apply to your units, if they areattacked. You can only retaliate the enemy in adjacent squares, therefore, you c


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an't retaliate anyshooter unless you are standing next to them.

When it's time for one of your units to move, you would see that unit being highlighted.You can skip this unit and go on to the next one by clicking on 'skip' button at the bottom of thescreen. But if you do that, the unit you skipped lose that turn. There ar

e three situations youmay get into when you start your combat: combat on normal terrain, attacking a castle, anddefending a castle. Attacking and defending a town is the same as fighting on normal terrain.

When fighting on normal terrain, everyone has the same advantage/disadvantage. Youjust move your troops around and do your normal fighting.

CastlesWhen attacking a castle, you have to use catapult to break the castle wa

lls before youcan walk up to an enemy unit and attack. You flying troops are not limited to this, they can flyinto the castle bofore you break the wall. Your shooters units' damage is reduced whenattacking over the castle wall. You can only fire your catapuls once each turn,and it takes twohit tat the same section of the wall to break that section. The catapult aim ata random sectionevery turn. You can't control it. You can fire twice if you have an artifact called ballista ofquickness. See 'Artifacts' section. Catapult can not be destroyed.

When defending a castle, you have castle walls to keep enemies away from

you. Youcan't walking out either. You can use shooters to attack them and flying units to fly over castlewalls to attack. The same apply to your enemy. You have a guarding tower shooting firearrows, once each turn. The damage of arrow depends on the number of city improvements youbuild inside the castle. The guarding tower can not be destroyed. Hell, it can't be seen either.

Now you need to know all the changing mouse pointers during combat.

Running man -- When you see this, you know you can move the highlighted unit tothe placewhere you put your pointer.

Flying man -- Same as running man, you only see this when the highlighted unitcan fly.

Sword -- This means you can attack whomever you are pointing at with your highlighted unit.

Arrow -- You can shoot there. You see this only when the shooters of yours are highlighted andthey have arrows left.

Red X -- You can't move/attack there.


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? -- It changes to ? when the pointer is on one of your units. Click and you see the troops infowindow come up on the screen. Click on this often during the combat to see if any of the troopsare low in hp and need a heal. (Yes, you will have heal spell.)

Helmet -- I already told you.

Now that we got the basics out of the way, it's time to fight.

The BIG question, Do I or Do I not choose Auto-combat?This is a bit tricky, since both auto or manual combat have drawbacks. F

irst let's talkabout auto combat. It is a good choice for newbies. For more experienced players I wouldsuggest manual combat. Playing auto-combat is like watch a cartoon, it takes the fun out ofgame-play. But if you have absolutely no idea what is going on, then forget about the fun part

and just keep your men( or some kind of creatures) alive ok?

First let's look into what's happening when you choose different combat options.

Auto Combat

There really isn't much strategy involved on your part. Computer does everything for you. Andcomputer always follow one single strategy in combat.

Normal terrain.

How computer casts spellsEach turn, if you have any combat spells available, the computer will tr

y to use it.Typically, it casts 'protection' on your shooters unit first, then 'bless' either your shooters or oneof your currently attacking units. Computer casts other spells generally when it's needed. Butcomputer try its best to cast one spell per turn ( The max allowed ) until you run out of combatspells. Sometimes, and I have no idea how computer calculates that, it will force your hero tocast some destructive spells like storm. It will hurt both enemy and your own units. I highlyoppose the usage of this kind of spells unless you are on a suicidal mission. There are only twospells in the game that will hurt all troops, 'storm' and 'Armageddon'. Use these with extremecaution!! You could kill your army with it. But over all, computer does a fairly good job on spellcasting. The only problem is you need to go back to your castle to restock yourspells at leastevery two battles, if you let computer do all the spell casting. Oh, also, the 'fireball' may hurtyour own troops if they are one square away from where the fireball explodes.

How computer moves the troops around and fightThe computer will always move your slow units before the shooters to for

m a protection


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shield. By slow I mean the units that can't move to the enemy and attack withinone turn. Thatwill include all the units with 'slow' speed and most 'medium' speed units, unless you cast 'Haste'on them. The units with 'fast' speed and flying units will all go attack enemy shooters units first.Well... That's about it for dumb computers. It just wait until enemy units are w

ithin attack rangethen attack it. Otherwise, only shooters will attack. And computer always attack the enemyshooters first. This is the strategy the computer use when attacked by you. But, of course, if theattacking unit can't get to the enemy shooters, it will attack anyone in its way. This should beobvious. That's all to it for auto combat.

Draw backs of auto combat.Doing auto combat is tend to waste your spells. Even if you know you can

crush your

enemy in one or two turns and you don't really need to cast any spells on your troops, thecomputer will still do it until you run out of scrolls and have to go back to acastle for a refill.When I was playing, I generally let a hero with some strong army wonder around and fight for awhile before I get them back to a castle, so if I use auto combat all the time I will be in trouble.Spells can be extremely helpful in combat. You will see.

Auto combat does not always move and attack according to situations. For example,when you encountered those neutral creatures groups, they are normally all the same type of

troops, but they split into 5 groups with around 5 units each. So, when you getinto those kindof combat and enemy is all shooters, the strategy computer uses is fatal to your troops, if youuse auto combat that is. You see, when you are facing 5 shooting units, they shoot at yourshooters at least 5 times in one round. If all your walking units are just standing in front of yourshooters trying to protect them like the computer will always do, your shooterssufferunnecessary damage. The troops can't block arrows, arrows always hit the target. For yourshooters alone, to kill all the enemy you need at least 5 turns. If you walk the other units towardthe enemy, even if they can't attack within one turn, most of them can attack the enemy in thesecond round and save the shooters. (Shooters can't shoot arrows when an enemy unit isstanding next to it, and they do much less damage without shooting). Another example, if youhave one of the following 3 units, you'd better not do any auto combats: Dragons, phoenix, andcyclops. The problem with these units is that they are extremely powerful. Theyare also the onlyunits in the whole game that can attack 2 squares instead of 1 for normal units.

During autocombat, computer only see to it that dragon/phoenix/cyclops do hit the enemy. It doesn't care if


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you have another unit standing in the line of fire and get killed by your own dragon. Thishappened to me a couple of times and can be very annoying if the units got killed is one of yourshooters. After that, I abandoned auto combat totally.

Attacking/Defending Castles

During the attacking and defending of castles, if you choose auto combat, the computergenerally use the same tactically planning. Definitely the same as far as spellcasting isconcerned. However, computer does send more walking units to stand near the castle wall towait for the breaking down of the walls. Other than that, it's the same.

Manual Combat

Normal Terrain.

Now here, you can use some strategy. First you notice that your mouse point changesaccording to its position. The most important of all, the sword sign changes pointing directionswhen you move it around the body of the enemy. It shows how you attack, the handle points towhere you would stand, and the blade points in the direction of your attack. Itdoesn't seemmuch at first, but it's proved to be an important thing to consider when conducting a combat.What you want to do is to keep most enemy away from your shooters and let the rest of yourtroops attack them with the help of shooters from behind. One way of stop a unit

moving issend an unit next to them. Or use a unit to block the way. There are rocks and trees and so on,that have already blocked some of the road. The first thing you need to do is survey the wholebattlefield to see how you can use those 'blockers' toward your advantages. Effectively usingthose road blockers and your units can keep most of enemy at their side of the battlefield andannihilate them. Another thing you need to remember is that no unit can move toan occupiedsquare period. So if you are clever enough, you can use enemy units to block their own troops.Of course, they will attack your blocking units like crazy so use the unit withconsiderablestrength to this job. If you send a unit to stand inside the semicircle made bythree enemy units,all of them will attack your unit instead of moving around them even if they can.

One note on blocking, there is no way you can block any flying units. They can fly towherever they please to.

Another importance of knowing the direction of your attack is when you have the threeunits I talked about earlier that can attack two spares. You want to make sure

that your otherunits aren't in the line of FIRE. Also check if another enemy unit IS in the line of fire and you


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can attack both within one turn.Always leave at least one unit to protect your shooters preferably one o

f the slowmoving units since the enemy flying units will always go after your shooters. Then send the restto attack and block enemy units. If your flying or fast moving units aren't strong enough to take

the first round, then move them slowly with the others and form a steady line to preventundesired encounters. And again, flying units will just go over your head.

Always use more than one unit to attack one enemy unit unless your are sure that theenemy unit is so weak you can finish it in one or two turns.

Shooters should always try to kill the enemy shooters first. After that, if your shootersare strong(great in number, etc.) you should try to eliminate a whole group of enemy troopsalone. If your shooters aren't so strong, then try to help your attacking unitsto finish their fight

quicker so they can go on to the next battle. As the saying goes, 'it's an art,not science.' go withyour feelings. Watch for ammo though. The shooters' ammo normally lasts 8 rounds. After thatthey attack by hands and become almost useless.(Druid and trolls will be still good attackerseven after their arrows are gone.) Don't worry, after the battle is done, theygot new suppliesand will have the full load for the next battle.

Other than these, you just walk/fly to your enemy and attack. Flee if you have to. Youflee to prevent you experienced hero to abandon you. If you make a mistake by attacking

someone or you got attacked and you are sure that you can't win, you can surrender and buyback your troops.

For spells casting during the battle, I will put them in the spells section using commentsto each spell. It will be easier to write this way.

Attacking CastleGenerally you do the same thing. You just need to handle an extra castle

wall beforeyou have a clear path to attack. Your flying unit can get in only if there are space left inside.Sometimes you can't find any space inside the wall. Then you have to wait until the catapult tobreak at least one section of the wall. Line up your attacking units along thewall and wait forthe walls to be broken. your troops will be stopped upon entrance between the broken walls,hence block the way of your own troops. So castle attacking is normally a one-on-one eventwo-on-one, three-on-one situation. Always send in the strongest walking troops. By strongestI don't mean the type. You may have 2 dragons and 500 swordsmen, then the swordsmen isstronger than the dragon. To find out the detailed info on your troops move your

mouse overthem and click on the troop with that question mark. Also read the section about troops in this


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guide. Don't forget to let your shooters help opening up pathways into castle, by killing theenemy that's blocking the way, or kill some weak troops inside the castle to open up space foryour flying units. You will have to cast protection on your shooters or they will suffer someheavy casualties.( Those damn flaming arrows from the watch tower!) Don't leave

any units withshooters to protect them unless enemy has flying units.

After I take over a castle, I don't normally leave it empty like the computer does mostthe time. I don't leave any of my own army there either. I recruit if I can. IfI can't, I let my herestay there a week. This somehow slows down your quest but, you don't lose your castle tooeasily.

Defending the castleYour walking units wouldn't do anything until your castle wall break dow

n. Shooters isthe most important and you should start shooting the first round. First at their shooters,hopefully, with the help of the watch tower, you can kill enemy shooters. Then enemy flying unitsif there is any. Then shoot at the strongest enemy units to, at least, cut downits size to minimizethe damage they do. At the meantime, line your troops along the wall to fill all the spaces. Alsosend out your flying units if they are strong enough.

That's about it for combat. Isn't it exciting?

Troops info (listed by type)You can actually find all those info by right click on the troops icon m

ost the time,sometimes even left click will do. I list all these so you can have a list handy. All the numbers incost means gold, unless specified. Growth is per week. Morale and Luck are all normal for allthe troops. Only under the leadership of a hero those attributes will be changed. For somereason, those basic troops like peasants and goblins are more effected by heroes' modifier aspowerful troops like cyclops and dragons are less effected. At least that's what happened tome.The troops are listed in order of increasing power (loosely), The word in following the troopname is the dwelling needed to recruit those troops.

Knight/human troopsIn Campaign game Lead by Lord Ironfist. Color red.]Peasants (Thatched Hut)Attack -- 1Defense -- 1Damage -- 1HP -- 1

Speed -- 1Cost -- 20Growth -- 12


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Specialty -- NoneComments -- The weakest troop as soon as you can afford, discard peasants untilyou suddenlyremember it. Only more than 1000 of them stack together can do something. But you still needto use them at the beginning of the game, if your home castle is knight/human castle.

Archer (Archery Range)Attack -- 5Defense -- 3Damage -- 2-3HP -- 10Speed -- SlowCost -- 150Growth -- 8Specialty -- Shooter, 12 shots per combat.Comments -- Basic Shooters. I can't think of anything else right now. I will let you know when I

do.

Pikemen (Blacksmith)Attack -- 5Defense -- 9Damage -- 3-4HP -- 15Speed -- MediumCost -- 200Growth -- 5Specialty -- NoneComments -- Can be used both as defenders or attackers just stack lots of them together.

Swordsman (Armory)Attack -- 7Defense 9Damage -- 4-6HP -- 25Speed -- MediumCost -- 250Growth -- 4Specialty -- NoneComments -- Same as Pikemen

Cavalry (Jousting Arena)Attack -- 10Defense -- 9Damage -- 5-10HP -- 30Speed -- FastCost -- 300Growth -- 3Specialty -- NoneComments -- The best attacking units before you can afford to build a Cathedral.

Paladin (Cathedral)

Attack -- 11Defense -- 12Damage -- 5-10


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HP -- 50Speed -- FastCost -- 600Growth -- 2Specialty -- Attacks twice per round.Comments -- They are fast, they are strong. But not too strong comparing to other troops in

their rank like dragons and phoenix. In my opinion, even hydras are better. Theonly advantageis it's cheap. It's even cheaper than some basic troops of other type of castles. And its growthrate is 2 instead of 1 like others.

Barbarian / Plains troopsIn Campaign game lead by Lord Slayer, color green.Goblin (Hut)Attack -- 3Defense -- 1Damage -- 1-2

HP -- 3Speed -- MediumCost -- 40Growth -- 10Specialty -- NoneComments -- Most basic troop of this type. But you can see, much better than peasants. Idealfor shooter defending early in the game.

Orc (Stick Hut)Attack -- 3Defense -- 4Damage -- 2-3

HP -- 10Speed -- SlowCost -- 140Growth -- 8Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat.Comments -- Basic shooter, great in growth rate. Stack a lot of them together.

Wolf (Den)Attack -- 6Defense -- 2Damage -- 3-5HP -- 20Speed -- FastCost -- 200Growth -- 5Specialty -- Attacks twice per round.Comments -- Always tag it alone for attacking. Does double damage and fast.

Ogre (Adobe)Attack -- 9Defense -- 5Damage -- 4-6HP -- 40Speed -- SlowCost -- 300

Growth -- 4Specialty -- NoneComments -- Nice for castle defense. Of course you can use it for attack but co


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nsidering itsspeed, it's ideal for defending.

Troll (Bridge)Attack -- 10Defense -- 5Damage -- 5-7

HP -- 40Speed -- MediumCost -- 600Growth -- 3Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat. Regenerate HP.Comments -- The best shooter unit in game. Author's choice award :)

Cyclops (Pyramid)Attack -- 12Defense -- 9Damage -- 12-24HP -- 80

Speed -- MediumCost -- 750 + 1 crystalGrowth -- 2Specialty -- Attack 2 spaces, 20% paralyzation.Comments -- Relatively cheap and a good attacker/defender. HP a little low. Speed is quiteslow.

Sorceress / Forrest troopsIn Campaign game lead by Queen Lamanda, color yellow.Sprite (Treehouse)Attack -- 4Defense -- 2

Damage -- 1-2HP -- 2 Speed -- Medium/flyCost -- 50Growth -- 8Specialty -- Enemy can't retaliateComments -- If you have lots of them then use them. The most spendable unit in game. Gathermore than 200 of them then use them.

Dwarf (Cottage)Attack -- 6Defense -- 5Damage -- 2-4HP -- 20Speed -- SlowCost -- 200Growth -- 6Specialty -- 25% magic resistanceComments -- The castle defending unit for this type. Ideal for non-hero defending castlesconsidering its specialty.

Elf (Archery Range)Attack -- 4Defense -- 3

Damage -- 2-3HP -- 15Speed -- Medium


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Cost -- 250Growth -- 4Specialty -- Shooters, 24 shots per combat, 2 shots per round.Comments -- Best among basic shooters. A little expensive for its rank.

Druid (Stonehenge)Attack -- 7

Defense -- 5Damage -- 5-8HP -- 25Speed -- FastCost -- 350Growth -- 3Specialty -- Shooters 8 shots per combat.Comments -- A good attacking/shooting units only next to trolls.

Unicorn (Fenced Meadow)Attack -- 10Defense -- 9

Damage -- 7-14HP -- 40Speed -- MediumCost -- 500Growth -- 2Specialty -- 20% Blind (the enemy not itself!!)Comments -- Use for defense, use for attack. it's good for anything, only the growth rate is low.

Phoenix (Red Tower)Attack -- 12Defense -- 10Damage -- 20-40

HP -- 100Speed -- Fast/FlyCost -- 1500 + 1 MercuryGrowth -- 1Specialty -- Attacks 2 squares.Comments -- The best. Also the most expensive next to dragon.

Warlock / Mountain troopsIn Campaign game led by Lord Alamar, color blue.This is considered the best group of units in the game but they are very expensive and low ingrowth rate.Centaur (Cave)Attack -- 3Defense -- 1Damage -- 1-2HP -- 5Speed -- MediumCost -- 60Growth -- 8Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat.Comments -- The weakest in game. I think it's here to balance all the other powerful armies.

Gargoyle (Crypt)

Attack -- 4Defense -- 7Damage -- 2-3


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HP -- 15Speed -- fast/flyCost -- 200Growth -- 6Specialty -- NoneComments -- Use it only if you don't have griffins. One advantage is gargoyleshave a higher

defense point.

Griffin (Nest)Attack -- 6Defense -- 6Damage -- 3-5HP -- 25Speed -- Medium/flyCost -- 300Growth -- 4Specialty -- Unlimited retaliationComments -- Bring a whole bunch in your party. Considering its specialty, it is

a good if not the best 'road blocker' in the game. Also ideal for castle attacking and defending.

Minotaur (Maze)Attack -- 9Defense -- 8Damage -- 5-10HP -- 35Speed -- MediumCost -- 400Growth -- 3Specialty -- NoneComments -- I use them most for defense but it is balanced. If you can live with

its speed it'sOK to attack too.

Hydra (Swamp)Attack -- 8Defense -- 9Damage -- 6-12HP -- 75Speed -- SlowCost -- 800Growth -- 2Specialty -- Attacks all adjacent spaces; enemy can't retaliateComments -- Take these hydra anywhere with you. They are proven to be better than paladinsif not cyclops. It's best used as 'road blocker' and castle defender. If you have'Haste' spell, then use this to attack. It could compare to the power of dragon. Well almost.

Dragon (Black tower)Attack -- 12Defense -- 12Damage -- 25-50HP -- 200Speed -- Medium/fly

Cost -- 3000 + 1 SulferGrowth -- 1Specialty -- Attacks 2 squares. Immune to spells.


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Comments -- What can you say? They are dragons. Nothing can slow them down. With 20 or30 stacked together, they guarantee to wipe everyone off the map. I used 5 dragons in the 1stscenario of the campaign game and I never met any match.

Miscellaneous troops,

You can not build the dwellings for these creatures in your castle. You have tofind theirdwellings and recruit them there. You cannot recruit ghost units, they are enemies.Rogue (Wagons)Attack -- 6Defense -- 1Damage -- 1-2HP -- 4Speed -- FastCost -- 50Growth -- N/A

Specialty -- Enemy can't retaliate.Comments -- Considering the cost and attack skill, you may want to recruit themwhen you findthem. Use them to attack early in the game. Facing some powerful enemy, they die ratherquickly. This type of troop is very unbalanced.

Nomad (Tent)Attack -- 7Defense -- 6Damage -- 2-5HP -- 20Speed -- Fast

Cost -- 200Growth -- N/ASpecialty -- NoneComments -- Can be used as substitute for Cavalry, but not quit as good. I willsay it's yourcall. Not something that you definitely need to go after.

Genie (Lamp)Attack -- 10Defense -- 9Damage -- 20-30HP -- 50Speed -- Fast/FlyCost -- 650 + 1 gemGrowth -- N/ASpecialty -- 10% chance to cut the size of enemy unit in half. (!!!! This is good, Hello there.Wake up !!!)Comments -- What do you feel when you find a lamp with genies ( yes pl.) inside? They aregood. Grab them whenever you find the lamp. But before you go pick up the lamp,make sureyou have the money for at least 10 genies. I have not seen a lamp with more than 10 geniesinside. Not yet. If you don't have enough money, you can't get all the genies an

d the ones youleft in the lamp will disappear with the lamp. Also make sure, the hero who pick the lamp up has


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an empty slot to put the genies. If not you can't get the genies either.

Ghost (Shipwreck and graveyard)Attack -- 8Defense -- 7Damage -- 4-6HP -- 20

Speed -- Medium/FlyCost -- You can't recruit them.Growth -- N/ASpecialty -- For one creature killed a ghost is created.Comments -- The most annoying troop in the whole game. Don't even touch them unless youhave 'turn dead' spells and/or you know every one of your troops can stand one round of ghostattack without dying and kill the ghost in one round. They are in shipwrecks, graveyard. If theyare outside, you will see the icon.

Spells info (list in no particular order)

Advanture spells.You cast these at the adventure window.

Level 1View Mine -- Display the location and type of all mines on the map.

Level 2Summon Boat -- Summon the nearest boat (unoccupied)View Artifacts -- Shows all the artifacts on the map.

Level 3

Identify Hero -- Shows you the statistics of an enemy hero and who many troops he is leading.View Heroes -- Displays the location of all heroes.View Resources -- Display the location and type of all resources.View Towns -- Displays the location of all towns/castles.

Level 4Dimension Door -- Move the hero who cast it to any space visible in the adventure window.Town Gate -- Teleport the hero who cast the spell to the nearest friendly castle or town.View all -- Show the entire map.

Combat SpellsYou cast these in Combat window.All spells can be used on both side. So before you do any spell casting

in combat, makesure you are helping your armies not the enemy OK?

The spell with * is better used on your own units.The spell with ** can be used on both sides to see a positive effect. Li

ke 'Dispel Magic'can be used to heal your own troops of negative spells, while remove positive spells on enemyunits.

Level 1Curse -- Cursed units can do only minimum damage.*Bless -- Blessed units do Max. damage.


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**Dispel Magic -- Removes all spells from the receptian.*Protection -- +3 defense.**Teleport -- Move one troop to a random unoccupied square on the battlefield.Slow -- Slow down the enemy units so they move one square a turn and attack last.

Level 2

*Anti-Magic -- Protects the units from all spells.Blind -- Blind troops can only retaliate. The damage to a blind troop cancels the spell.*Cure -- Cures ALL your troops of all negative spells.Lightning Bolt -- Does 25x hero's spell power damage to one troop.*Haste -- Haste troops speed up to FAST.Turn Undead -- Destroy one group of undead creatures, namely ghosts.

Level 3Berserker -- Berzerked units will attack the nearest troop for one round.Fireball -- Does 10x spell power to all adjacent squares.Paralyze -- Paralyzed troops can't retaliate; damage to paralyzed troops cancels

the spell.*Resurrect -- Heals 50x spell power to a single creature in a single group.Storm -- Does 25x spell power damage to ALL units on the battlefield.

Level 4Armageddon -- Does 50x spell power damage to ALL troops on battlefield.Meteor Shower -- Does 25x spell power damage to all adjacent squares.

Note, the level there is the level of your Magic guild not the level of your hero. Different Magicguilds in different castles gives you different spells. So do not ignore the development of allmagic guilds.

Artifacts info (what I found out so far)I think I got everything. If you find any artifact that is not listed

here, please mail me.

ULTIMATE ARTIFACTSYou dig these up after you solve (or think you solve) the puzzle. There is onlyone in everyScenario.Ultimate Book of Knowledge -- +12 knowledge.Ultimate Sword of Dominion -- +12 attack.Ultimate Cloak of Protection -- +12 defenseUltimate Wand of Magic -- +12 spell power.

Adds to AttackThunder mace of Dominion -- +1 attackGiant Flail of Dominion -- +1 attackPower Axe of Dominion -- +2 attackDragon sword of Dominion -- +3 attack

Adds to defenseArmored Gauntlets of Protection -- +1 defenseDefender Helm of Protection -- +1 defenseStealth Shield of Protection -- +2 defenseDivine Breast Plate of Protection -- +3 defense.

Adds to Spell PowerCaster's Bracelet -- +2 spell power


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Witches Broach of Magic -- +3 spell powerArcane Necklace of Magic -- +4 spell power.Mage's Ring -- +5 spell power

Adds to KnowledgeMinor Scroll of Knowledge -- +2 knowledge.Major Scroll of Knowledge -- +3 knowledge

Superior Scroll of Knowledge -- +4 knowledgeForemost Scroll of Knowledge -- +5 knowledge.

Adds to MoraleMedal of Courage -- +1 moraleMedal of Honor -- +1 moraleMedal of Distinction -- +1 moraleMedal of Valour -- +1 morale

Adds to luckGambler's Lucky coin -- +1 luckLucky Rabbit's Foot -- +1 luck

Golden Horseshoe -- +1 luck4-Leaf Clover -- +1 luck

Adds to moneyEndless Purse of gold -- +500 gold per day.Endless bag of gold -- +750 gold per day.Endless sack of gold -- +1000 gold per day.

MiscBallista of Quickness -- Catapults attack twice a round.True compass of mobility -- +move on land and sea.Travelers boots of Mobility -- +move on land.Nomad's Mobility Boots -- +move on land.

Sailor's Astrolabe of Mobility -- +move on sea.

BAD BAD BAD (cursed artifacts)Fizbin of Misfortune -- -2 Morale.

Dwelling info.Float chartsKnight Castle --}Archery Range /Castle ---} Thatched Hut |--} Well ---} Blacksmith\ /--} Jousting Arena \ |--}| --} Tavern --} Armory / \--} Cathedral

Barbarian Castle --} Stick Hut /Castle ---} Hut |--} Adobe --} Bridge --} Pyramid \ --} Den

Sorceress Castle --} Tavern --} Cottage |Castle ---} Treehouse --} Archery Range --} Mage Guild

| -------------------------------- |


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-} Stonehenge --} Fenced Meadow --} Red Tower

Warlock Castle ---} Nest --} Swamp --\ | |--} Black TowerCastle ---} Cave --}Crypt --} Maze --/

Dwelling costTermsG -- goldO -- OrcW -- WoodC -- crystalS -- SulfurGem -- GemM -- Mercury

Cost for converting tent to castle -- 20 w, 20 o, 5000 g

Common dwellings that can be built in all casltes

Mage GuildLevel 1 -- 5 w, 5 o, 2000 glevel 2 -- 5 w, 5 o, 4 c, 4 s, 4 gem, 4 m, 1000 glevel 3 -- 5 w, 5 o, 6 c, 6 s, 6 gem, 6 m, 1000 glevel 4 -- 5 w, 5 o, 10 c, 10 s, 10 gem, 10 m, 1000 g

Thieves' Guild -- 5 w, 750 g

Tavern -- 5 w, 500 g

Shipyard -- 20 w, 2000 g

Well -- 500 g

Knight Castle dwellings

Thatched Hut (peasant) -- 200 g

Archery Range(Archer) -- 1000 g

Blacksmith (Pikemen) -- 5 o, 1000 g

Armory (Swordsman) -- 10 w, 10 o, 2000 g

Jousting Arena (Cavalry) -- 20 w, 4000 g

Cathedral (Paladin) -- 20 o, 20 c, 5000 g

Barbarian Castle

Hut (goblin) -- 300 g

Stick Hut (Orc) -- 5 w, 800 g

Den (wolf) -- 1000 g

Adobe (Ogre) -- 10 w, 10 o, 2000 g


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Bridge (troll) -- 20 o, 3000 g

Pyramid (cyclops) -- 20 o, 20 c, 6000 g

Sorceress Castle

Treehouse (sprite) -- 5 w, 500 g

Cottage (Dwarf) -- 5 w, 1000 g

Archery Range (elf) -- 1500 g

Stonehenge (druid) -- 10 m, 10 o, 2500 g

Fenced Meadow (unicorn) -- 10 w, 10 gem, 3000 g

Red Tower (phoenix) -- 20 m, 30 o, 10000 g

Warlock Castle

Cave (centaur) -- 500 g

Crypt (gargoyle) -- 10 o, 1000 g

Nest (griffin) -- 2000 g

Maze (minotaur) -- 10 gem, 3000 g

Swamp (hydra) -- 10 s, 4000 g

Black Tower (dragon) -- 30 o, 20 s, 15000 g

General Hints and Tips for game plays.This section deals with specific issues that you may encounter in the ga

me. Also questionsothers ask me. You can consider this mainly a FAQ or Q&A section. There may be repetition of what Ihave already wrote about in the early sections

In Campaign game which lord / queen should I choose?It depends. When you choose a lord, you are actually choosing the type o

f castle/troops tostart your game with. After you decide, you will always start the campaign scenario with that typeof castle. For details on lord/castle combanation see the troops section. Everyone has his/herpreferences on types of troops. After one game or two, you will have your own preference, too. Forstarters, Knight casltes give you cheap and relatively OK troops. Babarian/Sorceress castles bothhave 2 kinds of shooters and good for castle attacking. Warlock castle give youpowerful troops (advanced troops are more powerful) but very expensive. I always pick soceress castle for no reason.Guess I like the shooters and phoenix. I suggest the starters to choose Knight castles or Babariancastle.

What should I do the first day?In most games you start with one castle and one hero on the first day. Y


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our first mission isto explore the surroundings and pick up near by treasures, artifacts or whatever that is NOTGUARDED. You don't have the stroops needed to fight. So don't even stop near any creatures. Don'tforget to build a dwelling in your castle. You can build one a day. Then hire another hero. Don't

think you would need that 2500 gold for something else. Your reserve is generally enough for severaldays of building, and you do need at least two heroes at the start of the game.

What should I do the first week?By now you should have at least two heroes, but don't go over three sinc

e you don't want tosplit your troops to too many heroes. You don't have many troops yet. Don't even consider the thirdhero for at least a week or two. DO remember, however, to build one dwelling everyday the firstweek. Build dwellings that produces armies first. When you ar low in funds or yo

u can't build thedwellings then build well and mage guild. This should open up more dwellings for you to build, sincesome dwellings requires the building of well or mage guild first. Leave the Thieves guild and Tavernto the last. Send your heroes to explore the nearby land. Don't go too far though. You can't govery far without fighting. One thing you can do is to give all troops to one hero and send themexploring, while the other one with minimum troops go around pick up goodies, and protect yourcastle in case other lord find you too fast. Don't leave the castle empty.

Should I fight those creatures to get to the mine/artifact?It depends. You can look up the troops section for relative strength of

troops. The creatureguarding the mine/artifact is normally in 5 groups of 4-5 creatures per group, unless they arepaladins or dragons. That will be 1-2 per group. Compare that to your army's strength and make adecision. If the guarding creatures are slow and you have shooters then you have an advantage. Ifit's the other way around then you have disadvantages. The problem will be the slowly walking troopssuffer from the shooters while walking close. If you have some flying units then you can use them totie up enemy shooters, genereally 3 of them if your flying units stand in the middle. They can'tshot with an enemy unit next to them and their hand-to-hand damage suck. The same apply to yourshooters so when you distribute your troops in hero's window, put the shooters at the beginningand/or the end of all the troops. That will put them in the corner of the combat window. Then youdon't need as many troops to surround them to protect them. Now if you need that mine desperatelythen you have to fight that creature to get to it. But sometimes you can walk around the creatures

and capture the mine. Don't fight the creatures that are blocking the road. They can at least slowdown your enemy's approach. When you feel you are ready and strong enought to ex


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pand beyond thatpoint.

The enemy took all my castles what should I do?If ALL of your castles are gone, you should get a message telling you th

at you need to getyour castle back within 7 days or you are doomed. Do it!! Gather all the heroes

together and combineall the troops/artifacts on the most powerful hero. Use the rest hero to attackONE castle to weakenits defense then use the hero with all the troops to take it over. If you fail,you either start anew game or load the game again, assumming you have saved it earlier. If you did win this battle,it's likely you won't have the strength to take over another castle for a while. What you should dois defend the only castle you have, and let other lord fight each other. Most of them will getweakened or even conquered. While they are fighting, you should use all your res

ources and gold tobuild powerful armies. But watch your resources, they may run out. Even if you are not fightingothers, keep an eye on everyone. I recommand you turn on the view enemy move option. When you see acastle with weak defense near you, your chance is here and grab it. Go attack it and defend it. Thenyou have more gold coming in and you can build more armies. This way you can come back into battleand hopefully win this scenario. You should attack the weakest lord when you have the chance. Thereis a good chance that you may wipe him off the map. Then, you have the foundation to fight the one

most powerful lord that is left. The only disadvantage is the one left over maybe too powerful whenyou are finally ready to face him. But don't be discouraged by it. This is the time your startsaving on dragons and phoenix or cyclops. Stack whole bunch of those on one or two of your heoresthen go kill. Most enemy heroes have their troops spread over on everyone of them. You can gatherall of your troops and you can kill them without a lot of difficulties.

An enemy hero is approaching my castle, I don't have enough defense, what should I do?

Ok, first make sure if you have any hero that CAN defeat the approaching enemy with"Demension door" spell. If so, you maybe able to teleport that hero in time forthe fight. If not,do you have money? I am talking about 5k or 10k even. If you do, you can do a couple of things. Onething you can do is buy up all the troops avialable in that castle and a hero to lead them. Let thehero flee out of the castle. The computer AI wouldnt attack them, he will go for the castle. Italked about this strategy earlier in this doc. Go find it. Another thing you can do if you have 'Storm'or 'Armageddon' spell then you can hire a WARLOCK/SOCERESS to go on a suicidial

mission. Only givethem the original troops that came with them and let them go fight the enemy. Cast 'Storm' or


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'Armageddon' upon contact. This should wipe out all your units but that should take care some of theenemy too. If you have money just keep doing this until you run out of money orthe enemy got beatup and can't take your castle no more. Oh another thing, if your castle does not have a lot ofimprovement in it, then it's not a bad idea to lose it to the enmey. Under one c

ondition though,make sure you can take it back very soon. After you take it back, you might getextra improvmentsbuilt by your enemy. If you take all the troops away and take back the castle within a week then youcan get the extra improvements easily since the defense in castle is weak.( thecomputer can't getmore troops out of the dwellings.) If you DO have lots of improvement and you DO want to defend yourarmy, there is another thing you can do, only if the approaching enemy is low on shooters andflyers. You can get some flying units, buy them from dwelling or hire warlock/so

ceress who comeswith flying units. Your weak flying units will get attacked last. So you can hide it in one corner.let all other units fight and kill as many enemy as possible, make sure you do shooter and flyersfirst. Always hide your flying units in one of the four corners of the battlefield where enemy can'treach within one turn. Remove spells on the flyers if needed. For each round, your guarding towerwill shoot flaming arrow at the enemy and if you keep the flyers out of the reach of the enemy, theenemy will get killed after several turns by the arrows. One note though, if the enemy has a fast

moving unit there is a chance that it will catch you. It happened to me once. :( This does notalways work but worth a try if you are desperate.

Ideas I read about:Things in this section are not written by me. I am just copying it, norm

ally withoutapproval of the origianl auther. But since I am not selling this, it should be ok and I will givethe authhor credit. If you read your idea here and don't want me to use it dropme a mail ok?

Shuttle (Joe Novicki) -- This is the original text written by him on PC game online magzine orsomething close. :) sorry don't remember the name.

Say a large army is about to strike your castle, which is defended by avery weak hero. youhave a good army close by, but it can't reach the castle to drop off needed defenders. Your weakarmy can reach the good army to trade units, but it can't get back. Solution: Move the weak hero outjust one step from your caslte. Buy a new hero. Have the new hero go out, tradeunits with your goodarmy and head back to the castle. Now your weak army should be able to reach the new army, make the

trade and get back to the castle to better defend it. ... More heroes can be thrown in if needed.


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CheatsThe only cheat code known, at least to me, is 101495 you type it in when

you are at theadventure screen. Since keypad is used for movement control, I recommand you use the top row of thekeyboard to do this. The affect of this code is the same as 'view all' spell. It will reveal the

whole map to you. You will see everything going on on the map during the whole scenario.

There are also two stand-alone save game editors and a module for Universal Game Editor. You can goto my web page at http://www.egr.uh.edu/~yxq60120/hero/hero.htm and click on cheat to find the linksfor download.

Documents

Heroes of Might and Magic